Letter: Advocate Disputes Decision By Hillsborough Ethical Board

To the Editor:

The public can trust their own eyes as I did in person, and the Beacon’s editor did when viewing the video of the recent Ethics Hearing at the following on-line site http://bit.ly/mccauley-ferrara-ethics-complaint. There we learn how the Township Ethical Standards Board failed miserably to demonstrate any knowledge of the Ethics Statute all had sworn to uphold.

Also, although Board members self-proclaimed to be ethical, they demonstrated very obvious signs of prejudice and lack of impartiality.

A good example appears near the beginning of the video, when Steven Cohen, in a fit of admitted anger, demonstrated he had already reached a premature conclusion on the request for recusal I submitted. He angrily responded proclaiming he was very ethical, and the request was “nonsense.” It didn’t take long to see that Cohen’s antics were a self-proving demonstration that indeed there was good reason for the recusal.

When I proposed that he recuse himself, he refused, despite admitting not knowing any legal basis for his conclusion but instead relied only upon his personal opinion of right and wrong.

The admission by the Board Chairman that the members did have relationships with the Township Committee is very important to show the acknowledged conflict of interest tugging on each member, between their public duty to only decide the ethics complaint based upon the law and personal interests in honoring their relationships. Although the chairman stated the Board could put aside their friendships, the mere existence of the conflict, by law, should have resulted in recusal or disqualified the Board from hearing the complaint. Otherwise the law prohibiting allowing personal interests to influence a public officials judgment would be unenforceable if all one had to do was claim the conflict did not influence their judgment, as McCauley and Ferrara did.

Not every Board member was as candid in sharing their bias and lack of impartiality, as Cohen. Board Member Peter Cipparulo, Esq., did not candidly disclose his likely bias favoring the accused. He is the paid appointed legal counsel for Hillsborough Municipal Utilities Authority. His position there is bestowed upon him by the governing board of the Authority who are all hand-picked by the Township Committee, including the pick of Greg Burchette. Thus, in effect, the Township Committee Cipparulo must impartially investigate, controls his salaried position.

The law prohibits salaried public professionals from investigating and judging those responsible for paying their salaries.

Near the end of the video, the Board members announced uninformed reasons for their decisions which were clear indications they did not base their decision on, or even mention the Ethics Statute. If the law was not relied upon, what did they rely upon?

For example, Board member Cohen’s reason, “there was no quid pro quo,” is not part of the ethics law. It is a requirement for criminal allegations of bribery, not alleged in the complaint. Another member mentions, Ms. McCauley has to make a living, as his reason for his decision, which also is not part of the ethics law he was charged with enforcing.

There are, however, provisions of the ethics law, which actually prohibit a government officer or employee, like McCauley, from having an interest in a business or conducting a business transaction, which is in conflict with her proper performance serving the public interest.

Similarly, the law prohibits a local government officer or employee from engaging in employment which might reasonably be expected to prejudice her independence of judgment when performing her official duties. These laws, rather than the personal opinions or sympathies of the board members should have been the reasons for their decisions. The ethics laws do not support the Board’s decision giving permission to McCauley to run her real estate business out of Town Hall, even if it requires her to find customers she does not supervise or oversee on the Township payroll.

— By Roger Koch